Tuesday, January 02, 2007

A New Year, A New Shmoo

Welcome to 2007! Next week we'll be back with our first lunch box of the year. In the meantime I want you to know that I haven't been sitting on my laurels over the holidays (what are laurels, anyway, and why would I sit on them?)

First I created a complete Recipe Index listing all the free recipes available over on my recipe blog, Shmooed Food. That should make the recipes a lot easier to find; I could never get the "previous post" and "archive" lists working on the blog the way I wanted them to.

(Gee, until now I never noticed how many dessert recipes I've featured on the blog. I guess my sweet tooth is showing! At least a few of them are reasonably healthy...)

I also added a little Photo Gallery to my website with some of the fancier lunch box pictures from the book. At first I thought I would make a gallery with a picture of every single lunch menu in the entire book. Then I up and realized the amount of work that would require. Suddenly, laurel-sitting is starting to sound mighty attractive (whatever it is).

Jen, Happy New Year. Love what you done with your site. I made your Tenneessee Corn Pone tonight. It is wonderful. I just became vegan October 1 of this year and am feeling so good and loving it. I am going to post pictures of tonights dinner on my blog. By the way I got your book and love it!

happy new year! Thanks for indexing the recipes and avoiding laurels. Have you heard of a 'vasilopita'? It is a traditional greek cake made for new year's and has to do with giving to the "poor" (and cattle). I made it & posted some info on BC, & it turned out pretty good (moist). I also played cards in the Greek tradition, but my cousin pointed out (hi Maria) that the tradition was actually for the women to serve the men who were playing cards. Thank goodness for breaking with tradition. --eleni

I wanted to let you know that I made the vegan Wellington for our Christmas dinner. Turned out really great. I ended up making two med. sized ones. I especially liked being able to make them the day before and only having to bake them on Christmas. Thanks for a very enjoyable blog. Best wishes for the New Year!

Hi Jennifer - Resting, resting on the laurels. Laurel wreaths worn on the head. The wreaths were won in the early olympics for winning races and whatnot. Basically, "Now that I'm accomplished I don't have to work at it any more".

Just wanted to say thanks for all the great ideas. We're a new vegan family, and I'm searching for simple/fun/nutritious ideas for my son's snacks and meals at preschool. He comes home every day and tells me he had either chocolate biscuits or crackers with cheese and ham! So here we go!

You're not really a pumpkin??!! This is just like when I realized there was no Santa...

I just wanted to wish you a happy new year, and to thank you because your blog was the very first one I discovered, and you inspired me to start my own. This is one of the coolest things I discovered/did in 2006, so thank you!!

The laurels were kinds of leaves, or vine, that were made into a crown, called a Civic Crown, which the Romans awarded to someone who saved the life of a Roman Citizen. (For instance, Julius Ceaser was awarded the Civic Crown for saving the life of a tax collector.) Tradition held that the owner of a Civic Crown, when wearing it at a public occasion, had to be saluted by everyone present, even the Emperor. To rest on your laurels, then, is to rest on the honour that you have previously earned, rather than to work towards further honours.

*sniff* I have no laurels to sit on... Only my daughters doll. *sits on doll* Poor Laurel...

Anyway- I made chickpea noodle soup adapting it to my tastes (I left out the tomato paste) and since Shmoo said the chickpeas were crunchy (and I had never touched- much less eaten- a chickpea before) I boiled them for a bit while I sliced carrots and celery. Who knew chickpeas could taste so good? My daughter kept stealing them off my spoon! I need two things. That lunchbox and your book.

I grew up in Northern Germany and my parents raised me and my siblings vegetarian. I wish half my school lunches would have been as tasty as Shmoo's! Where to you buy all your mock meats? Thank you for all those great ideas.